Conventionally, an identification of material such as plastics has been performed by any one or plural combinations of physical analysis for analyzing gravity, hardness, melting point, dielectric constant, color tone, etc. of the material and chemical analysis for analyzing infrared spectrum or heat of the material.
In the case of physical analysis for identifying the material, however, there are drawbacks that generally it is required to adjust and/or destroy the material and that it takes a long time to complete the analysis. On the other hand, in the case of chemical analysis for identifying the material, in the infrared spectrum analysis there are drawbacks that accurate analysis cannot be expected when the surface is contaminated, and in thermal analysis there are drawbacks that it is required to melt the material. Furthermore, although both the analyses, i.e., physical analysis and chemical analysis, can identify the type of material, it is difficult to identify the production history or manufacturer of the material.
A method capable of solving the aforementioned drawbacks has been known (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Laid-open Patent Publication No. H8-269370). This method includes the step of: adding one or more elements to the material to be identified; irradiating the material with an X-ray; detecting the spectrum radiated from the element(s); and identifying the material based on the detected spectrum.
In general, however, the spectrum emitted from the aforementioned element(s) or compositions is wide in half-width Δ λ (i.e., bandwidth at the half value of the peak light emitting intensity). Therefore, in cases where the spectrum overlaps with a spectrum having characteristics similar to the wavelength λ, it is difficult to discriminate them, which makes it difficult to identify the encrypted information included in the material.
The present invention was made in view of the aforementioned problems, and aims to provide information presenting substance-containing material excellent in spectrum identification and capable of assuredly specifying encrypted information included in the material and therefore capable of easily and assuredly identifying the material. It also aims to provide the method, the system and the device for identifying the material.
More specifically, the present invention aims to provide information presenting substance-containing material including various encrypted information such as not only the material type information but also the production history information and the authentication judging information and enabling easy and assured processing operations such as a separation of waste materials depending on categories, a tracking survey of production history of a certain product, and checking of authenticity of a certain product. It also aims to provide the identification method, the identification system and the identification device for performing the aforementioned processing operations.